He began his legal career in 1980 at J. B. Dadachandji & Co., first as an intern, and later as a full-time lawyer. During this time, he assisted
Palkhivala in the Minerva Mills case (case citation: AIR 1980 SC 1789). Salve was later designated a
Senior Counsel by the
Delhi High Court. Salve worked with former
Attorney General,
Soli Sorabjee, from 1980 to 1986. He declined to be nominated for a second three-year term due to "personal reasons" when his first term ended in November 2002. He later clarified that his wife was unhappy with him bringing work home. Salve was appointed as
Amicus Curiae by the Supreme Court in some cases, mostly relating to preservation of the environment. However, in 2011, he recused himself from this position during a hearing on
illegal mining, on the grounds that he had previously appeared for one or more of the parties. In 2013, Salve was admitted to the
English Bar and subsequently joined the
Blackstone Chambers.
Major cases and clients Harish Salve argued the first Anti-Dumping case in the Supreme Court of India. He frequently represents large corporations like
Mukesh Ambani's
Reliance Industries Limited. He has appeared in the
Krishna Godavari Basin gas dispute case against the latter's brother,
Anil Ambani's
Reliance Natural Resources Limited. Other clients include the
Tata Group,
ITC Limited, whom he has represented on various in matters. He has appeared for several Tata group companies. He has also appeared for
Ratan Tata himself. Salve represented
Vodafone in its $2.5 billion tax dispute with the
Indian government. He initially lost the case in the
Bombay High Court, but later won it at the Supreme Court after taking a temporary residence in London and relocating his office there to focus solely on the case. Salve was extremely critical of the Indian government for passing a retrospective clarification to the Income Tax law in the 2012
Union Budget, which nullified the Supreme Court's decision. Salve appeared for Bilkis Bano, a victim of the
Gujarat Riots, at the behest of the
National Human Rights Commission in 2003. He also appeared as a defence counsel in the
Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case. In 2015, he took up the high-profile case of actor
Salman Khan. The actor was earlier sentenced to five years in jail for a 2002 hit-and-run accident that left one man dead and four others injured. Senior counsel Amit Desai, a Mumbai-based lawyer replaced Salve for a short time in the Salman Khan trial. The Bombay High Court eventually suspended the sessions court decision and on 10 December 2015 acquitted Salman Khan of all charges for the 2002 hit-and-run and drunk-and-drive case. In May 2017, he represented India before the
International Court of Justice in the
Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of spying. Due to his efforts, the International Court of Justice has ordered a provisional
stay on Jadhav's execution until a final verdict is declared. For this case he charged only ₹1(INR) in legal fees.
India Today magazine ranked him 43rd in India's 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list. ==Personal life==